Heppner announces a strategic partnership with Gebrüder Weiss for its Air & Sea freight forwarding business

As part of its ongoing effort to expand its Air & Sea freight forwarding business, Heppner is proud to announce it formed a strategic partnership with the Air & Sea division of Gebrüder Weiss (GW), an international group specialising in transport and logistics.

After a successful 20-year partnership with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Heppner has decided to move up to the next level, in order to accelerate its expansion in France and elsewhere in Europe in air and sea freight forwarding and related customs services. “Operating exclusively with a global network like Hellmann inevitably runs into limits in terms of expansion for Heppner. We now believe we have reached that limit”, said Valentin Jung, head of Heppner’s Air and Sea division.

Heppner and Gebrüder Weiss are both family-owned companies leading their respective domestic markets and renowned in Europe and the rest of the world. Moreover, the two companies know each other well, as their international land transport divisions have worked together since 1985. With the goal of offering their customers excellent service and maximum agility, they are now joining together to provide them a unique combination of air and sea solutions with global coverage.

With 11 locations in France (in Strasbourg, Entzheim, Roissy, Nantes, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux, the Basel region and Tours), Heppner has the entire French territory well covered. Each year, its Air & Sea division organises the shipping of more than 25,000 containers by sea and 15,000 tons via air freight. Gebrüder Weiss, meanwhile, has 150 offices in 30 countries and a total of 7000 employees. Its Air & Sea division ships more than 115,000 containers by sea and 58,000 tons of air freight each year.

Through this new partnership, Heppner also opens the door to expanding its Air and Sea business outside France, particularly in Western Europe and Africa. The new partnership will be fully operational by the end of this year.

“Heppner possesses a unique organisational set-up that offers its customers agility, flexibility and proximity, all with the scope of a 3PL. I am delighted with our partnership with Gebrüder Weiss, which demonstrates our ambition to speed up our expansion in France and internationally in air and sea transport. We share with Gebrüder Weiss a common vision of our business in terms of operational excellence and customer service. Our companies and teams are already united by a foundation of common values”, Valentin Jung added.